Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

And Commissioner Snyder. Present. And I'm Commissioner Radnich. Can I get an adoption of tonight's agenda?

So moved. Second.

All in favor? Aye. Okay, public comments, I will share. If you would like to provide a public comment on an item not on tonight's agenda, we do have two items on tonight's agenda. If you would like to speak to something not on the agenda now would be the time she could let staff know if you would like to speak on one of the two items on tonight's agenda there's comment cards in the back, if you could please fill it out and hand it to staff, so we could call you up at the appropriate time. So I don't see any in the room.

Correct, Chair. None in the room. Anyone participating online, if you'd like to speak on an item that is on tonight's agenda, your opportunity will be forthcoming when that agenda item comes up. If you would like to make a comment on an item not on tonight's agenda, please raise your hand. Now, seeing none.

OK. Thank you. We'll move to item 5, consent calendar, the June 1st draft meeting minutes. Can I get a motion for the consent calendar?

I move that we adopt the consent calendar. Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

OK. Item 6, continued public hearings. None. We'll move to the new public hearings. First item 7A, Temple Isaiah. Maybe before we have the staff presentation, I would like to ask if there's anything from any of the commissioners that you would like to disclose. I know a handful of us did site visits. In the site visit, we did meet with representatives for the project. So if you have anything to disclose and who you met with, now would be the time. I'll just start going down the row, Vice Chair.

City Council Chambers, I did participate in a site visit myself only know other Commissioners and made no commitments or. City Council Chambers, comments about the project.

City Council Chambers, Thank you, yes.

City Council Chambers, i'm sure I did visit the site, I believe it was on. City Council Chambers, Thursday afternoon I met with the applicant, but I did not discuss anything specifically which is the site visit. City Council Chambers, Okay, thank you.

City Council Chambers, Nothing for me. Okay, myself, I also met with the representatives of the project three representatives on Thursday afternoon, did not discuss the merits of the project. Anybody else?

As the contrarian, I am going to not disclose what I did. But for the record, I didn't go to the site, but I've been to the site.

Thank you.

And Commissioner Snyder, I did visit the site and essentially asked a few several questions.

Perfect okay um and then I will also just ask for Commissioners when we're not speaking let's mute our things so just for the recording is better so turn it over to staff for item seven a.

Thank you chair early Cassidy senior planners, the project planner and she will be presenting remotely this evening, so her presentation should be coming up on screen momentarily.

Good evening, Commissioners. Can everyone hear me and see my screen displayed? Yes. Wonderful, thank you. Tonight I am presenting a preliminary review for a proposed community building at Temple Isaiah. The proposed project triggers a land use, hillside development, grading, variance, and tree permit. As described here in the project description, this is for an expanded religious institutions use. to construct a new 16,565 square foot two-story building, to move 875 cubic yards of soil, to propose a new building that is 45 feet in height, higher than allowed, and have reduced new parking for the project, and to remove 19 trees for the project. I want to give you a brief overview of my presentation. First, as I mentioned, this is a preliminary review. No formal action is proposed at the end of it. My presentation will include the project context, a description of the project in detail, analysis of the project against the permit requirements, as well as CEQA referral comments and public comment, and a request for feedback from this body. Starting with our context, you can see here that the project sits between Mount Diablo Boulevard and Highway 24 over on the west side of town, almost across from the Lafayette Reservoir. The site is 467,000 approximately 400 square feet, which is close to 11 acres. The zoning for the site is R40 primarily with a portion in the MRA or Multiple Family Residential District A. Zooming in a little bit, we can see some adjacencies. East Bay Municipal Utilities District, six to the west and in a thin strip to the south of the project. Farther across Mount Diablo to the south is a residential area, also residential to the east with a few commercial uses mixed in. And to the north again, Highway 24 with open space beyond that. The campus is fairly built out, though not fully. There are four existing buildings on two separate levels. There is a little bit of open area remaining to the north near Highway 24 and at the south end or bottom of the site downhill near the Ebb Mud and Mount Diablo Boulevard. You can kind of see, especially that southern portion in this Google Earth view. The goal for the applicant is to construct a new building at the center of campus. Here you see the topo map showing the topography of the site. I've shown the approximate proposed building location with a red rectangle. All of the topo lines shown here indicate the steepness of slope. The closer together they are, the steeper the slope. You can see that this red rectangle has quite a few topo lines in it indicating quite a steep area. However, there aren't that many areas that don't have construction on them already that are less sloped. There are building sites, there are drive aisles, and of course the top parking lot is the flattest place. But beyond that, there are no obvious other building locations. It is a very steep sloped area, and many of these areas also have vegetation on them. Here you see a site plan of what's existing now. Again, you can see the four existing buildings, the main sanctuary at the center, the day school to the left, the Temple House and Talmud Torah Center. at the south end or bottom. There's a total of 66,357 square feet of building at this time in square feet. And then impervious surface, this includes the building outline, the pavements, sidewalks, and play areas is a total of 178,650 square feet total. The proposed site plan shown here includes the new building, This would be at the top of the hill to the east or right of the main temple building. The fire access is shown in red. That's the dotted line going up the driveway on the north end of the campus. And then there's two different exit pathways that can go either to the south on the west side of campus or wrapping around on the lower level and back to Reza Road. The proposed building is nestled between this entrance driveway and the existing temple between the north and south ends and between the upper parking lot and the east exit driveway on the east and west sides. A slight reconfiguration of the existing parking lot would be required, which would end up adding four spaces. Here's a zoom in of that proposed site plan with a little more clarity. Looking now at floor plans, the orientation of the building has shifted. North is now to the right. The existing parking lot is at the upper end. That's to the west side of the building. It just fits better on the slide for better detail here. I'm starting with the upper floor of the building. Again, a two-story building. The upper floor is actually level with the parking lot. The lower floor beneath it goes down the hillside. So this is the top floor. It includes a lounge, cafe, multipurpose room, meeting room, library, and bathrooms. And you can also see on the left side or south, there are two different levels of decks shown. The first closer to The floor plan is the upper deck. This has primarily to the south or left with a small area to the east at the bottom of the drawing as well. And then further beyond that is the lower level deck, which does have access to that lower level. I'll show you that there. Here you can see just the lower level deck. Below the upper deck is more floor plan on this lower level. This includes offices and open office space, meeting rooms, break room, bathrooms, and a mikvah or a ritual bath. Again, the lower deck is shown. It also connects to a path, which would extend down to the lower level of campus, which is currently fairly segregated from the upper level and difficult to reach for a pedestrian. Looking at elevations, this is the proposed front elevation. This faces to the west onto the upper parking lot where there's a one story presentation. The proposed height at this level would be 16 feet and four inches to the top of the ridge of the roof there. The materials shown include a stucco finish in a limestone color. There would be a smooth finish on the main building walls, and then below the lower level around the foundation, there is a textured stucco on that level. We also see bronze anodized windows and doors, glass and matte black metal railings, and a limestone decking for the flooring. Looking now at the rear, which is to the east, there's a two-story presentation as well as a deep foundation wall. This is due to the slope of the building site. Here, the maximum height measured per the Lafayette code is 45 feet. This is measured from the average of the lowest grade to the middle of the highest roof form. I do want to point out that The two stories of the building above the foundation wall would, in fact, measure exactly 35 feet as required by code. It's only due to the steep slope of the site that this additional foundation wall accentuates the height of the building from this side. Looking at the two side elevations, we have the north on the left and the south on the right. Both have exterior stairs that wrap to the lower level from the upper parking lot area. Again, the outside deck and outsource space associated with the building are both on the south side. Here we have two site elevations cutting through the entirety of the property. There's a key at the top, quite small, I know, but it is oriented north to south. The new building is in red in that key. So the first elevation on the top is an east-west elevation looking to the south. So this is cutting through the building where it's narrowest. The building is shown in dotted red. It's a little hard to see, but it's in the center of this elevation. You can see the long, flat upper parking lot to the right of it, where it's level with that top story. The site actually goes up before continuing downhill into the EBMUD property to the left of the building, still in this top elevation. There's quite a few trees. can see a small car where Reza Road sits and then across that some of the residences and I believe that one business at least is mixed in with those facing on Teresa Road across the street from the site. The lower site elevation shows again the proposed building in dotted red a little to the right of center. Highway 24 is at the far right slight downward sloping. But what I do want to point out, this lower elevation is north-south looking to the west, and it's actually taken at the bottom of the building elevation, so as if it's looking up at the building where you see the two stories sitting against the ground slope there. And so that's why it looks like a two-story building in the red dotted lines. The slight upward slope to the left of the building here is actually how the hill wraps around just below the temple. And then the next dip and flat area, that's the exit driveway that wraps around Teresa, the temple, religious school, and then a continuous downhill to Mount Diablo on the far left corner. Looking at the grading, this is again an image with north to the right parking lot is to the top of the image. The buildings on the right, it shows the full path as proposed. The grading proposed is actually balanced on site. 875 cubic yards of cut and fill each are proposed. The cut is primarily taken from around the site outside of the building footprint. This would be the path The two decks, a reconfiguration of the parking area on the edge there, as well as the stairwell on the north side of the building. The fill is all going to be placed under the building. Typically, grading that is within the building pad is not counted towards a grading permit. However, the trigger for a grading permit is just 50 cubic yards. So this clearly does trigger that. And while balanced, only the cut would count towards that grading permit. As far as drainage, the full altered site is outlined in blue here. The drainage plan shows a new 15-inch storm drain attempting to capture that runoff. All runoff must be captured and treated. However, it's connecting at the top of the site on the far right where the parking lot would interface with the building. That's not how drainage works, so we have asked for additional details about how the drainage coming off of the new path or the lowest point of the developed area would be captured and brought to the bioretention area. A proposed bioretention area of just under 800 square feet is shown. It's shown here where the storm drains connect. This would be a new area to process that runoff. And we have asked for more detail about how all of that runoff would be captured and brought to this site. Looking at tree removal, The arborist report shows 143 trees inventoried. 71 of these are proposed for removal. The general area of removed trees is circled in red. Not every tree in this area is proposed for removal, but this is where most of the removals would take place. You can see it's generally focused around the building site. There are some additional eucalyptus and pines proposed for removal to the west and north, which is the lower part of the image and the right. Of the 71 proposed for removal, only 18 are actually protected tree species, with an additional one tree proposed for extensive removal. Because of the sizing of the proposed removed trees, Only 20 replacement trees would be required. 29 are proposed, though of a smaller size and I'll talk a little bit more about sizing requirements when I get to the comments from the landscaper. Looking at the landscape plan, really the site just around the building is proposed for landscaping, including the area near the path. There are two main planting palettes, an ornamental shrubs palette shown in darker green. This is mostly low water plantings. And then a screen shrubs and ground cover in lighter green, which is all low water plantings. There's additionally a bioretention area, also all low water use. I do want to point out that while the water use proposed is compliant with WELO, it is quite close to the maximum allowed, so this is something that I've called out as something I'd like feedback from the Commission on. The lighting plan is shown here. Again, this site plan is a little bit rotated. North is generally to the right, a little bit to downward right on this site plan. There are four total fixture types proposed. A wall sconce, 11 of them, generally on the outside of the building wall, usually near an exit door. Three pole lights, these are proposed near the bike parking, which you can see, I don't know if my mouse is showing up, it's near these three new trees at the top of the image, as well as at the north stair and the south deck area. 35 bollard lights. These are generally the small red dots. These are along the edge of the parking area and down the path off this image, all the way to the path's end at the lower end. level of campus, and 41 stair lights. These are all clustered on the stairs and benches that are part of that lower deck descending down. Those are the small purple rectangles that you see there. All of these are dark sky compliant fixtures. And based on the photo, I'm blanking now the image of how the light spreads. The light is fairly well contained and downward directed and would not spill off site. Moving now to the analysis of the proposal. I'll start with the general plan, as I explained in the staff report, there are two different designations on the single site. There's the main one that was the original, which is a low density single family residential that's shown in the yellow with the new housing element that was approved a few years ago. An additional separate designation was added. This is the brown color and it is a high density multifamily residential designation. The project can be found to be consistent with the general plan land use goals for both of these uses. And so there would be no conflict here. Looking at the zoning code, there are again matching the same image and coloring two different zoning districts. The first main one is the single family residential district 40 or R40. The second, which would be the brown outline is the multiple family residential district A or MRA. A land use permit is required for the churches, temples, and religious institutions use. The proposal for this project is an expansion of that use, but it still requires a land use permit. In RE40, this use is named as something that requires a land use permit, very straightforward. In MRA, it is not listed as a use that is either allowed by right or specifically allowed with a use permit. However, MRA does have and allowed uses That is, if the Planning Commission found the use to be comparable to the above uses, above uses being approved or allowed or allowed with a permit, then the Planning Commission can approve that use using the same findings for a normal land use permit. And so staff believes that the findings can be made for both of these zones. Looking now at the Hillside Development Permit, Echoing what I laid out in my staff report, the main concerns for this permit are siting and massing. Again, despite the building height, there is a relatively low impact for the massing. This is a rendering shown provided by the applicant. This is from the top of Reza Road above where the main entrance driveway connects for the Temple Campus. You can, if you squint through the greenery, there is a building rendering behind the existing tree greenery. This shows how the building would appear from Reza Road. And this is the most likely exposure where it's most visible, not necessarily this exact spot, but this east side looking up at the building. Again, relatively low impact. This is the best location for the project goals, and it does seem to be an appropriate massing for the building and the site. The design includes high quality materials. I did call out my staff report that the building is a relatively light color. This is something that should be considered with reflectivity and visibility, though again, there's a good amount of vegetation screening the building. There's also a concern simply from the applicant's point of view of dirt showing over time, but I'll leave that to them to decide if that's important. As far as visibility and privacy, again, despite the tree removals, many, many existing healthy trees will remain and provide good screening vegetation. Views from north west and south are primarily blocked by the topography and the existing temple building. The east side is the only area where there will be views, but as shown in this image, there will be primarily peekaboo peekaboo views where the building will be visible, but not the entirety of the facade. It will simply be visible through the tree branches. Looking at grading, as I summarized earlier, there is 875 cubic yards of cut and fill, though only the cut is considered for the grading permit. The grading does appear to be appropriate and is well contained to the site. There is no extraneous or unnecessary grading. Again, as mentioned at the beginning of the presentation, The campus itself is quite sloped. There are no better or more obvious flat spaces where such a building could be located and still meet the applicant's goals. Finally, the variances. There are two requested for parking and height. I do want to remind everyone listening that the details of the building occupancy and peak trips were redacted from the digital staff report due to security concerns. Hard copies are available at City Hall, open to all. Summaries are provided here and in the staff report. So for parking, current uses do have adequate parking on site per code requirements. The new use would require additional parking, which is not proposed or shown and not met per the requirements. Only six new spaces are shown. However, the applicant has provided a parking study showing current peak parking needs, which are met. This is primarily because the proposed project, the new building, is not intended as a new use but rather a reorganization of existing programming. As described in the staff report, the campus is currently quite overcrowded. Multiple users are using the same office space. And so the idea is that the building would simply spread out what already exists, thus not generating many new trips. Thus, the parking, the variance or findings for the parking are likely able to be found. For height, again, the proposed building is 45 feet in height, which is 10 feet taller than the 35 foot maximum allowed in both zones. I do want to point out again that the two floors of the building are 35 feet, which is what's allowed. The additional 10 feet in height comes really from the foundation wall below the two stories of the building, which is due to the steep slope. Variance findings are primarily based on the uniqueness of site and the ability to avoid requiring a variance. I think I've made it clear that there's not a good location that would allow for a flat building construction. And so it's unlikely that any two story building would be able to be built within the 35 foot maximum. Again, staff believes these findings can be made. Looking now at environmental review, based on the submitted environmental form and project proposal, the project did not qualify for any CEQA exemptions. An initial study is therefore required and is underway. Findings from this initial study will inform the final level of environmental review required, which will accompany the project to the Planning Commission for final approval. The project was referred to many outside agencies. I'm not going to list them all here. They are listed in the staff report. Standard comments were received from Central Sand and Mud and Fire. Engineering had two comments, the bioretention design on the slope. We have since received a design submitted from the applicant, which is acceptable for that bioretention area, which allows for the slope stepping down. Excuse me. As far as drainage, as I mentioned, when we looked at the image for drainage, there is a need to capture all of the new runoff. We haven't seen details that explain how that will happen. The engineers have stated that they're able to provide them. They were planning to provide them at time of building permit. We requested to see those details before final planning approval. Landscape comments are summarized here. There were five main ones. primarily the suggestion that the applicant substitute the two larger tree species proposed, which is the Roberts Western Sycamore and the Pacific Madrone. These don't grow particularly well on site or are too crowded, and so undue species might be better fit. to consider thinning the stand of oaks that is east of the temple, consider providing replacement valley or coast live oaks in open areas on campus, and consider removing the stand of invasive giant reed. Finally, to modify the hydrozone plan to provide separate hydrozones based on water use and show higher water use in the mixed zones. Staff does support all of these comments and would request modifications in the plans prior to planning approval. I do want to add a little more specificity, as I mentioned earlier, with the tree removals. When trees are removed, our code requires that they be replaced with trees of the same size. Most of the trees proposed for removal, the protected species, are of a large size, not all of them, but most. And most of the proposed replacement trees are of medium and small sizes. Replacement trees of a smaller size are allowed if the arborist report states that there is not enough room on the site to fit the larger species. This arborist report does make that statement. And it is true when considering the limited area of the project scope. However, the campus is a large one and there are other areas that might hold larger trees. Staff has conveyed this to the applicant and expects to hear some ideas about where larger trees might be planted beyond the tight project scope for the new building. The project was noticed published in the Lafayette Sun on Friday, June 19th, 17 days prior to this meeting. Staff has also received four public comments prior to staff report, which were all included in the project, or excuse me, in the staff report publication. All of these comments were in support of the project. I'll remind the Planning Commission that the findings required to approve the project eventually include the land use findings, hillside development permit findings, as well as some design review findings, grading, and variance findings. There are no specific findings required for the tree permit. Finally, staff recommends that the Planning Commission provide feedback on any topics the commissioners would like to raise. as well as provide feedback on these four issues. Can the Planning Commission make the findings for all requested permits? Is the building color appropriate? Are the replacement trees sufficient in both species and location? And is the landscaping and water use appropriate? Staff further recommends that the Planning Commission refer the matter to DRC for further review. Following this preliminary review, the application will likely progress to DRC for review, which will then make a recommendation to Planning Commission. Once CEQA analysis is complete, the application will return to the Planning Commission for final review of CEQA and the project. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. Are there any questions for staff, Commissioner Mason?

Yes. Do we have an approximate timeline when this would come back through DRC and then to us and when the CEQA report would be done?

We don't have a hard timeline at this moment. My understanding is that we can progress this if the Planning Commission agrees. sends it to DRC, it can be reviewed there. And then prior, once we get the sequel analysis, it can come back to Planning Commission for review. But we don't have specific timelines for that. Thank you.

Any other clarifying questions for staff? Commissioner DiGiorgio?

Thank you for the staff report. And maybe we can talk about this later, but I wanted to ask you about on staff report page five, the discussion about the MRA district. It's not clear to me why we have to use this element F, which is the other uses. Maybe you can help us understand why it doesn't fit in with item B, which is the community assembly and education clause.

Yeah, it's very close to that use. However, we do have a use that seems a better fit, which is the church's temples and religious institutions use. Generally speaking, when looking at something like a campus like this where there's a temple, there are other schools, we want to pick the use that best applies to the primary function of the entire campus. And then there are obviously sub or accessory uses that are slightly different. And when looking at parking, we do break it down, but we generally want to have one standalone primary use that's what we use to represent when we're considering for a land use permit. And in this case, churches, temples, and religious institutions seems the best fit.

Mayor Mrakas, Okay, thank you and then to to minor 10 technical points you might consider for the next either when you're delivering report to the DRC or when it comes back. Mayor Mrakas, One is the project plans are scanned as images and it makes it difficult because we can't search for text on it and. Mayor Mrakas, And the other thing now that's that's good enough, thank you and I do appreciate your port and all the work you put into it.

Thank you. City Council Chambers, Any other clarifying questions commercial bunch.

Arlie, do we have a cap on the number of meetings for this? I think that's just for housing related, but I just want to make sure.

That's correct, just for housing related.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, I don't see any other clarifying questions for staff, so I'd like to welcome the applicants team up. You have 10 minutes for a presentation. Do you mind pressing the button? Perfect. Good.

All right. Well, good evening. My name is Rabbi Jill Perlman, and I serve as the senior rabbi of Temple Isaiah. Next year, Temple Isaiah will celebrate 75 years of being a proud and active part of our vibrant Lafayette community. Over the generations, we have built lasting relationships with civic leaders, with local schools, partner organizations, and other houses of worship. positively contributing to the rich diverse social tapestry that makes Lafayette so special. Temple Isaiah serves as the hub for Jewish life in Contra Costa County for the 1000 families who call Temple Isaiah their spiritual home. Nearly 50% of our members are residents of Lafayette. They are your neighbors and your friends who come to our community to pray, to learn, to connect and to strengthen their Jewish identity. While our staff team at Temple Isaiah works tirelessly to manage our campus efficiently, the reality is that our deeply engaged community is bursting at the seams of our available spaces. Our existing infrastructure cannot support the needs of our current families. Without these proposed spaces, it is becoming increasingly difficult to cultivate the strong face-to-face sense of community that our families and children and teens and seniors so desperately need. The expansion on our campus will allow us to continue to serve as a gathering space for broader community events as well, such as hosting a local high school's baccalaureate ceremony, senior programming that's open to our larger community, and our recent five-part multi-faith gathering to mark the 250th anniversary of our country. We want to invest in community serving infrastructure that allows the campus to better meet the needs of today's families while remaining, of course, a good neighbor and a responsible steward of our property. Temple Isaiah has been a part of this community for generations. This project is about ensuring that our campus continues to serve the Jewish community and the broader community for generations to come. By addressing these critical space constraints, we're strengthening our local infrastructure and making a thoughtful investment in the long-term future of Lafayette and Contra Costa County. Thank you for your continued support of the Jewish community and of Temple Isaiah. So at this time, I want to introduce David Bogstad. He's the president of LCA Architects, and he's been working closely with us at Temple Isaiah on this project. David will walk the Commission through the project design site planning and how the proposed improvements respond to the needs of our campus while remaining sensitive to our neighbors and to the Lafayette Community, thank you.

Good evening commissioners. This is the first thing we're going to show you is an animation. It's hard to see this property at hillside, but it's, it's a building in a forest. So if you look at this animation, you could see that when this was first laid out, they bought this in the fifties. There was no trees here and the trees have grown up. Even some of the buildings I did years ago are covered in trees. And that's the hope for the future here. What we can do with animation. So a little Lafayette history. This site, the Temple House, was the home of a Polynesian restaurant that this temple bought in the 1950s. And the Temple House is still there. It's been remodeled a myriad of times. And that's the whole aspect of the project. We're taking the offices from there and moving it to the new building. So all that stuff goes to the lower floor so that we can have all the people. It's always hard to not have everybody in the same space. It's really an office complex with a welcome center at the top. Next. So we see the existing buildings, the one building on the far left, I did 20 years ago, and it was all exposed from the reservoir, and now it's covered in trees. So that's just the stewardship of this campus. You see where the building is proposed, Risa Road, Mount Diablo. Risa Road, you just sort of have to drive up there to see it, so it isn't that exposed. We wanted to do a Jerusalem stone for the building. We priced it out, everything else, very expensive. And we've worked with Baystone, Tim Ritter. I've done a myriad of projects with him. So at the end of the day, this will look like Jerusalem stone. So he's very gifted. You notice we can do the dark on the back and twirl it around. So it will fade in the back and be lighter in the front and eventually go into the sanctuary. So just a historical thing, beautiful stone, beautiful texture. and do that similar to really your building here. They're pretty close, maybe a little darker than outside these doors. This is the sanctuary on the right, the temple there, parking lot in through there. I want to cover the columns on the right with the same material. Go on to library, interior concepts. So when people drop off their kids, they can come there, use the library, have snacks, everything else, and pull down the traffic trips. And you see the seating. We just have the seating just like you have outside. So similar concept to be able to grab a book, read, look at the great views, be able to do that. Continue. This is the first floor. It's just a typical office building. And then on the upper floor, the two red dots, some of you were out there, hey, what are these poles with red flags? They're at the edge of the deck. So go back one. You see the building is set back from the road, but the deck cantilevers over the deck. So it looks a little weird on site with the story poles, but it's correct and accurate in that regard. The new planting, I have my landscape architect here. So if you have any questions with Alicia, you can go over that. But replanting this area, sort of a long-term, campus so that you can say i'm going to plant this here and 10 years from now it'll grow up and grow appropriately and be strong traffic report did an extensive traffic and we do have on zoom our traffic engineer mark and I don't know. We have an entry and an exit, but we also have an exit go on Mount Diablo. So you have two exits, fire department access, everything else, and they've been able to use that and be able to traffic. They manage your traffic very well in through that, drop off with kids and everything else. So a pretty thorough traffic study. We'll go that into detail. 38 proposed trees. They're in the outline of the trees around there. I think we can save some more trees. We're not going to cut down all 79. I think we're going to drop that around the 50s. I think this is progress, and it is the design process. So I think we can save more trees and be able to do that. This is the height of the building outside, as Arlie mentioned. And let's go back to this. We have the steps there. From the reservoir, Next slide. You really can't see it. It's behind the sanctuary. It's in the red zone. That's what I did before and after. So from the reservoir, you can't see it. From the area, this is Risa Road. It's Arlington. You hit the red. It sort of sits there behind the trees. From Branagh's building, it's sort of hidden behind that. And this is from the neighborhood property. We're going to do... This is from Google Earth. We're going to do... Drone to get a better shot, but do you see it sort of hidden behind there go on? This is across the freeway as arla asked us to go and look and you see that it's just on the Thing above a little bit a little image above that one area And then here same thing a little image. There's a great lot for someone's house there someday um, and then um and then We've studied this link. We have a great team, good civil engineer, famous landscape architects. Mark Moore with ZFA wrote the seismic code. We have NGO, traffic engineer, arborist, and my team. So any questions? I appreciate all your comments and things, and I think I've done that under 10 minutes.

Thank you. I will say I do appreciate you pointing out the two red dots. I had asked about that, so thank you. Are there any clarifying questions for the applicants team? Commissioner DiGiorgio?

Hi, thanks for that, and thanks for the flags. I also wondered about those. When the offices are moved to the new location in the bottom of the new building, what will be done with the existing offices?

They will be, you know, they have meeting rooms and tutoring and everything else. Those will be repurposed, but it isn't where if a tutor's here, a tutor's there, they don't have to interact, where the office all has to interact. So that's a big difference. And eventually, maybe not in my lifetime, but the Temple House does need to be torn down and everything else.

Commissioner Mason? Yes. On your traffic study, Never had troubles before. Don't see troubles now. Are you going to address the traffic at High Holy Days where everybody seems to leave at once and you have to have traffic management?

Yeah, the High Holy Days reminds me of the Lafayette Wine Festival when you close Mount Diablo. It happens only a couple times a year. We work well with Lafayette police to make that all work. That's... It's it's a few days of the year. But other than that, it all works. And everybody tries to do a good job and be courteous neighbors.

Thank you.

Michelle bond.

I'm assuming if you could put more parking in, you would. And while I have no problem if you can't and you're doing the best you can, it seems like no one ever complains if you have two extra spots. But if you're too short, you know, that's two people are going to complain. So in looking at your overview, it looks like there's not really an easy way to do that. And so I'm assuming that was part of it. I'm not trying to catch you in anything.

No, no, no. It's a... Good question. Yeah, there isn't. We've pushed and shoved. I think we get seven more parking spaces in refining that. So there isn't any more square inches of stuff to be able to fit in.

And it goes to the last comment. You guys do a good job at parking management in high load days. So, and I'm assuming based on the public comments I saw and everything, I know that there's no issues that happen that people can't live with. That would require more parking. Correct. Okay. Thank you.

Commissioner Snyder.

Yeah, my main concern has always been parking there. Just given the capacities of the sanctuary and the other buildings, you're really pushing the limits on the parking if you start getting that building up to capacity. My other concern, though, is the circulation of both vehicles and pedestrians. When you walk to the site, I've been there several times, and over half the times I've walked. and getting from the lower parking to the upper parking. As a pedestrian, you're always dodging cars and traffic. You tend to be using the same right of way, especially from Temple House, that little area there and all. Have you looked at options for taking and having some separation of pedestrians from the traffic, especially below the site you're talking about in front of Temple House?

Yeah, if you go back to the site plan, we are doing a new ramp, which is an expensive ramp, all the way down to where the temple house starts. Whereas before, you had to walk along the street and climb up those steep stairs. So that will be... That's where the drainage is also. Yeah, so it's along that edge, maybe... No, that isn't. Yeah, the little pathway to your left down is going down. It's an accessible path, so it goes down very gently all the way to the temple house.

And what about from where that path goes on to the exit road? You're still going to have to kind of walk through that little parking area there, right?

No, it will go down. So the next time I'm here, I'll do a better explanation of the ramp. But yeah, we've looked at that and everything else. The other thing with parking is... The office parking isn't used during the worship days and vice versa. So that's where that has shifted. So we'll explain that better on our next meeting.

And when you do have high holy days or larger activities, how the connection is from the lower to the upper part part of the campus and how those logistics work when people have to park off sites, they'd have to be able to walk up there. How they're going to take and interact with the vehicle traffic.

Correct. Yeah, that pathway will go up and connect to the ramp and then they'll go up the ramp. But more to show in our next meeting. Thank you.

Any other questions? Okay, so thank you. We will open up for public comment and then you'll have a chance five minutes to provide a rebuttal or any responses. So if you would like to speak to this item and you have not yet handed staff a comment card, now would be a good time. And in the meantime, we'll open it up to speakers in the room and then we'll go to speakers on the phone.

thank you chair uh we have three speakers who have noted they're available for questions but do not intend to speak uh unless the commission has questions those being chris sunblad stephen gordon and david douglas so two additional speaker slips uh for Folks in the room, the first speaker who can approach the podium is Jasmine Tarkoff, and she'll be followed by Jill Douglas. You're welcome to use the podium if you would like, and press the button at the base of the microphone stem if that's not illuminated.

How's that?

Great. Perfect. Thank you.

good evening my name is jasmine tarkoff i'm proud to call lafayette home for nearly 30 years and have had the privilege of serving as a past president of temple isaiah today i am helping to lead our capital campaign to bring this vision to life As somebody who raised a family in Lafayette, I've experienced firsthand what makes this community so special. Lafayette is a place where people value connection, service, and bringing people together. That's why this project matters to me. It isn't simply about adding a building. It's an investment in community serving infrastructure that will help one of Lafayette's longstanding community institutions continue serving Lafayette and the broader community for generations to come. Temple Isaiah has always believed that it is our responsibility beyond our own congregation. We strive to be a community partner, working alongside our schools, nonprofit organizations, other faith communities, and civic organizations to strengthen our community. Whether it's through volunteerism, building relationships across faiths, supporting neighbors in need, or creating opportunities for people to connect, we've always believed that strong communities are built together. Over the years, our community has grown and evolved, but our facilities have not kept pace with the way people gather, learn, and connect today. Several of you visited our campus during the site visits and saw firsthand it's a little disjointed, maybe a little difficult to navigate. This project modernizes and reorganizes spaces that have evolved over many decades, improves accessibility, creates a warm, welcoming gateway that better connects our campus and provides flexible spaces where people can gather, they can learn, they can celebrate and build community. It allows us to use our existing campus more thoughtfully, while remaining a good neighbor and a careful steward of both our campus and the surrounding neighborhood. As a Lafayette resident, I believe this project reflects the kind of thoughtful investment that strengthens our community while respecting the values that make Lafayette such a special place. We appreciate the commission's thoughtful review, and we hope you'll help us to take this next important step so that Temple Isaiah can continue to serve Lafayette and the broader community for generations to come. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Are there any questions for the speaker? Nope, we're good. We're good. Thank you.

Is this, okay, great. Hello, I'm Jill Douglas. Thank you, commissioners. I'm the current president of Temple Isaiah. I am part of one of many multi-generational families at Temple Isaiah. I grew up in Burton Valley. My husband grew up in Spring Hill. We raised our kids in Happy Valley. We're Lafayette lifers. I'm looking at Woodbury. So we're here to stay. Our congregation is part of what draws people to live here. As your neighbors, Temple Isaiah members are involved in many community activities and support efforts like this library, the Park Theater. I was on the board of the Community Foundation of Lafayette. Many of our members are involved in the chamber and many civic organizations. Our project offers us a chance to invest in our campus and create flexible gathering spaces needed to serve today's families and ensures we continue to be a vibrant community resource. Our vision is to have this new building complete our campus and provide for many generations to come. Traffic and parking are always important elements of every project. The numbers have been discussed, but I want to emphasize we strive to mitigate any impacts of this project, as well as any programming and use of our spaces currently. This project will bring practically no new traffic to the property. It's mostly moving activity from one building to another, which people have addressed. And also, I must reveal that for the High Holidays, as I think Commissioner Mason asked initially, my family actually owns a parking company, Douglas Parking, and we operate the High Holiday parking. So we're very familiar with it. We're good friends with Oakwood, with the Veterans Building. We work closely with them. How to offer our members meaningful experiences on campus while providing onsite parking and limited trips on Risa Road are always top of mind. We want this project to be a gathering space that keeps parents on campus while their student is attending one or two hour programming. Currently, we have nowhere people can pull up a chair, talk to each other without imposing on other people working or participating in programming. I trust we will answer your questions and address any concerns as the project works through the process. Thank you for helping us improve our campus and more to the tapestry of Lafayette's beauty. Thank you.

Thank you. Any questions?

That is all the speaker slips, we have in the room moving now to attendees online, if you would like to speak on this item, please go ahead and use the raise hand function right now. not seeing any raised hands.

Okay, thank you. So now we will bring it back to the applicants team, the comments we heard were obviously in support of the project if there's anything additional you would like to provide you do have five more minutes. Okay. Thank you, then we'll go ahead and close the public comment portion bring it to the Commission and. Arlie if you are able or staff is able to pull up the four questions that planning Commission is going to look at tonight we're going to be providing input on again we're not voting on the project tonight we're simply providing. Information to staff around for specific topics.

I have shared my screen. If that can be shared to the Commission screen, that would be great.

Yes, this is perfect. We can see it.

Okay, great.

So if it works for Members of the Commission, I thought maybe we'd just go question by question. And then that way staff can capture Any comments that we might have. So first. Can we make the findings for all requested permits so maybe what i'll just kind of turn that around and say, can anyone, are there any findings that anyone is struggling to be able to make.

Commissioner Mason. No, I specifically don't. And I just wanted to add that I am fine with the 45 foot height. I appreciate staff and explain the difference between Lafayette height and code height. And I think that is necessary. But I did want to make sure that that was specifically referenced. Thank you.

Great. Okay, then let's I also can make the findings that would be required so item to building color is a building color appropriate. Commissioner to Georgia.

City Council Chambers, i'm fine with the color I don't know that staff needs to include discussion of dust or feature changes in the color. City Council Chambers, But in any case i'm going to allow the DRC to really go through that.

City Council Chambers, Commissioner mason.

I also am fine with color one is the building is very well. protected by trees, so you don't get anything and also, I think this is different than most. color comes because there's a historical perspective, based on here, so I think that I would recommend to the DRC that. With all due, they should give all due deference to temple Isaiah on the color.

Okay, thanks any other comments on color.

I don't disagree, but I would just, I want to be a little careful how we phrase that because if historical precedent was, let's say, neon green for some other group, would we still say that? So I just want to be careful. I have no problem with this color and it seems very appropriate, but I, I want to, I'm just a little, I like to take more of a laissez-faire approach personally. So I'm saying that for myself and anyone else can hear what they want.

I just wanted to explain. So.

Yeah. I wasn't directed at you, sorry.

United States historical is 100 years, 200 years, whatever it takes. Historical perspective in this case is thousands of years.

I know, but on the way over, I was thinking about this because I'm very supportive of what they're doing, and I think it's a great amenity. But what if a different group came in that had a religious group that they were supporting, and maybe they just had... something about it that was and i i'm not i'm a little tongue-tied on how i'm saying this but purple was the color would you want to see a big purple building i i really wouldn't want to so i don't want to tie it to kind of i think this color works regardless of its historical presence i thought that was very interesting and i thought it tied in well and i thought it was aesthetically pleasing so i guess i just want to be careful how we tie it that's all And again, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to direct that at you.

OK. Any other comments on color? I like the color. I think it ties into other buildings in Lafayette very nicely. And I didn't realize the significance of the color choice. I understand the color choice. I think it's interesting. and i also like the amount of glass standing up there in the parking lot and being able to see the view of mount diablo i like that it doesn't feel like a heavy building um okay so we'll get on the color item are the replacement trees so item number three are the replacement trees sufficient in both species and location

City Council Chambers, I guess, maybe we'll just look for anyone that disagrees Commissioner to Georgia no i'm fine I was I wasn't sure yeah no I i'm fine with it as is, and I think that applicant has said they're they're continuing to refine the plan, and that will, I think, be addressed again later.

Okay. So we're all in agreement that the replacement trees are sufficient for what's presented right now, species and location. Oh, actually, I would like to bring up one thing on that. One of the things that we heard from staff was that for the larger replacement trees, that the footprint of the disturbed area might be limited to where you can put larger replacement trees. But they do have a larger 11 acres as a whole. I'm not really a fan of putting a large tree somewhere else just for the sake of checking the box. I would want to make sure that if it was somewhere else, it was still intentful. Otherwise, I'd rather have more landscaping with smaller trees near this actual building. So that's the only thing I'm offering there.

Yeah. The only thing that you made me think of this, you know, it seems like the world's getting hotter and we're in a somewhat fire prone area. So I just hope whatever is being done is I'm assuming taking that into account, especially as it comes to vegetation, because I think we're going to deal with that more and more as time goes on. So. As you said, you saw them 20 years ago and they grew. So what's it gonna be in 20 years and is that gonna be better for a more fire prominent future? That's all.

Okay, thank you. Item four, is the landscaping and water use appropriate for the site?

Commissioner DiGiorgio.

And this is actually for staff. I'm not sure I understand on the bullet that's on page 10 of the staff report that talks about modifying the hydrozone plan to be based on water use, not exposure. Is that ask a common ask for this type of item?

I don't know that that's a common ask. I think the intent, and this is, I'm paraphrasing here from the landscape consultant, Penn Phillips of Inside Out. This is an ask that is, he's asking that the hydro zones be correctly displayed. The applicant has shown hydrozones based on the two planting palettes that I described, the two different colors shown. However, as I mentioned, at least one of those palettes has a mix of low and medium water use plants or moderate water use plants. And hydrozones should be segregated based on whether it's a low water use planting area or a moderate water use planting area. So the fact that they've shown a hydrozone that has both levels of water use isn't a correct description or isn't a correct plan, basically. The hydrozones should be one color representing all of the low water use areas and a separate one for moderate water use areas. So if there's plants having those two separate levels of water needs,

in the same hydrozone someone some plant is going to not get the right amount of water does that make sense yeah thank you for the clarification of course okay um any other comments regarding the landscaping water used appropriate for the site I know one of the questions staff had asked, Arlie had asked if we're comfortable with the fact that the projected water use is just basically about a thousand gallons less than the max allowed. Are there any strong opinions on that I mean in my mind it's under it is close to the Max but there's a maximum number for a reason.

I mean, I think this is kind of a personal thing. Like if I were building a new house, I would probably want to do fire, like I said earlier, and low water use. But that's me. And I agree with you. We have a threshold there under it. So it's personal use. But I think it would be smart to use less water in the future too, personally. But again, that's their decision.

Yeah, I agree.

Dave Kuntz, Commission on the water use. Dave Kuntz, what's being done for the adequacy and pressure or reserve capacity for fire purposes, since the site is on a hill and has. Dave Kuntz, Would have needed. Dave Kuntz, Extra pumping capacity.

Yeah, good question. So I don't have that answer. I will ask, I guess, staff, Arlie, if you happen to know that. I do know the applicants, representatives are in the room, if that would be helpful. Or is it, I guess I'm looking at you, Greg, if knowing that comment is a question that you can speak to.

the matter has the application has been referred to the fire district and so if they have had any issue regarding that they would so advise um so they'll look both at adequacy of ingress egress ability to have apparatus stage fight a fire access the building, as well as fire flow water. So, and I'll let Arlie advise but I don't think they they raised an issue of adequate fire flow for for this project, but we can double check with them, just to ensure that that is the case.

Perfect.

HAB-Juliette Boone, yeah there was no specific comment, however, it is one of those comments that typically is phrased as you should you will be required at time of building permit to prove that you have adequate water flow, so it will be. HAB-Juliette Boone, will fall to the applicant to show that that's possible.

HAB-Juliette Boone, Okay, and i'm confident the applicant is already thinking about them perfect i'm seeing heads nod. HAB-Juliette Boone, Okay, thank you for that comment um. So then, those are the four items that we're being asked to look at tonight, is there anything additional that anyone would like to put out there for staff prior to this going to DRC? Commissioner DiGiorgio?

Just a real minor thing. Arlie, you might consider on attachment to adding years to the items. I know it's been there for a long time, but I didn't understand the purpose of that attachment without years on it. Thanks.

Apologies. I don't have it right in front of me. I assume you're talking about the history of permits. Is that correct?

That's right.

All of our permits are numbered with the year in them. So apologies for not making that clear. The year, the last two digits of our four-digit year are the second part of the application. So I think it was L-01-77 is from 1977. And for further clarification, There were a number of modifications to that initial land use permit. When an applicant changes the conditions under which it was originally approved, we consider that a change of conditions, which is a modification to the original permit. So there are numerous CCs added to those permit numbers. That's just modifications of that original land use permit.

Thank you. So I am reading the staff report. So these recommendations, they are intended to be giving feedback to the applicants team. I do assume the applicants been able to hear our comments and staff will be, I guess, maybe documenting the comments to work with the applicant. Okay. um well we're not taking formal action on this so is there anything else early i'll ask that you might need or staff in the room from us no again as you said there's no formal action we would ask that the planning commission refer the matter to the design review commission for its next review okay thank you then can i oh go ahead

City Council Chambers, And new public notice will be provided for when the matter goes to the design of your Commission great Thank you.

City Council Chambers, Can I get it yep can I just want to make sure we do include the request to put in the walking access Oh, thank you, I know they would do that the architect mentioned it, but just let's put it in the record that it's requested yeah Thank you.

Can I get a motion to recommend this item to DRC?

I make a motion to recommend this item to DRC. Second.

All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

We'll just take maybe like a three minute break while the room shifts around. A welcome back. It's it's maybe about 818. On the clock in here. Go back to our agenda. We're moving now to item seven B was a request for a hillside development permit design review tree permit grading permit. Madison Churchess, And I will turn it over to staff for presentation.

Madison Churchess, Thank you, good evening planning Commission, my name is Madison church, I will be presenting the phase one hillside development permit citing and massing determination for Carlisle terrorists and on address property. A phase one permit analyzes the sighting and massing of a proposed development on a vacant lot and is reviewed by the Planning Commission. A phase two permit analyzes the final design, landscaping and site impacts and is reviewed by the Design Review Commission. First, I'd like to provide some context. On the bottom left, you'll see a vicinity map, seeing that the site is located in the southeast portion of Lafayette. On the right hand side of the screen, you will see a context map. The site is highlighted in green and designated with a yellow star. The lot is roughly an acre and a half and is zoned R20. As you can see on the aerial imagery, the lot was previously developed with barn structures, but these have since been cleared. Access to the site is provided by a dirt road from Burton Vista Court across 9 Burton Vista Court within an existing access easement. For further context, staff has provided some context images. These were taken within what would be the proposed footprint area of the home. Context photo one shows the view looking north toward 3333 Hamlin Road. Context photo two shows the site looking east toward 9 Burton Vista Court. Context photo three shows us.

Remove trees adjacent to it.

I think from your perspective, being around with a neighbor because it doesn't work out, it's going to really suck. My neighbor cut down a tree and I was a little frustrated afterwards and I thought, God darn it. And I went through all these things and then I said, you know what? I want to be good neighbors and we're going to make it work.

Definitely join and if you can, just let staff know.

Yes, if it's on zoom I'll be able to attend.

Thank you. So maybe this one will do both of us just to kind of get the hang of what's going on. Perfect. Okay, item nine commissioners reports anything for. Oh, excuse me.

Uh, did you touch on eight B it's not on your agenda? Uh, our, our admin added it here for as a reminder for me to remind the commission, uh, that the mayor's state of the city address is happening in two weeks, uh, on Monday, July 20th. Uh, you've been preempted, uh, and so won't be, there'll be no planning commission meeting that evening. Um, your next meeting will be on. two weeks after that. It looks like that would be in August. And so you have Monday the 20th off from your duties as planning commissioner, but you're welcome and invited to attend at appreciation of your volunteerism for the city and hear the mayor's state of the city address. I hope each of you have received a postcard so inviting you. So great. Great to see the nods. So that is a reminder there.

Can you remind us what time it starts?

7 p.m. in this location. So if you just follow your normal routine of showing up at 7 o'clock, you'll be good.

Perfect. Okay, so great. We've got item 8B. Commissioner's reports. It doesn't seem like there was any... Planning Director's report.

On my to-do list is to send out to you the information related to the Housing Action Coalition lawsuit against the city that the city council considered at the last city council meeting, wherein they voted in support of a settlement agreement that would settle the lawsuit and it would hold the city to consider some upzoning of land in the downtown area. um it will come back through this commission as part of that between now and the end of the year uh we're already working on it um so you will be seeing that in in short order um it's essentially from the freeway to the Boulevard and then anything adjacent to the Boulevard between Mountain View Drive and Golden Gateway the east side of Golden Gateway. I may be misremembering some of the locations, but the settlement agreement has a map attached to it, so you'll be able to see precisely what the terms of the settlement agreement are.

Thank you.

Is there any way that's, you know how there's the development page on the city's website? Not necessarily that page, but can that be perfect? Is it online anywhere, or is that a legal thing that can't be?

It is absolutely online in the City Council packet.

Or I mean, do we have anywhere that are, I guess it's in our design code now, like all the upzoning, that's all been perfected. This is changing some of that, right? The upzoning number?

Yes, the Planning Commission and then Council will consider changing that by City Council Chambers, Additional up zoning okay.

City Council Chambers, That question I looked at the package for the Council meeting when they approved it and the up zoning map is in there okay.

And so is it online? Yes. It would take some, I would say, digging or it's not like top level. And so I think adding it to the major projects page, even though it's not a project unto itself, like a development project, I think that would be a good place. City Council Chambers, Better I mean as well. City Council Chambers, As maybe the housing element page yeah on the on the website. City Council Chambers, So thank you for that yeah for that note, thank you.

Commissioner Giorgio.

I didn't want to bring this up during item 7A, but back to the MRA issue that was discussed. And maybe in the future, and this is not for an answer now, but maybe in the future, staff can help us understand when state laws change and there's another zoning element thrown on top of a previous item, i i would like to in the future to understand why they have to both items have to be considered instead of just the newest item right and then um should the the um municipal code you know should there be a change so that we can stick with the original you know code not was forced on us by the state and that you know that's a lot there but that's something for a future consideration thank you

I just had one other thing, Greg, a request on. We've talked about this before with the presentation packages sometimes being a lot more illuminative. Is that right?

Sure. You know what I mean?

And I thought about it. Maybe you guys are forcing us to read the packets so you don't want to give us a consent. So I would settle for just the graphical part of the presentations because I find... there's usually two things in there at least that are better than the staff reported helping me mentally see the project and that's really what it is it's just getting more visually so just to request any way they can they probably do that last they do stockport first and that's why it gets a little more robust with visualists That's my guess.

Yes, this tends to be more visual in nature and the staff report by its nature has to be more kind of detail included. Although we are bearing in mind like trying to have visuals that assist and illustrate the text words. And so We bear that in mind, and thank you for the reminder again, and we'll continue to try to lean that way. And we did improve upon the original draft by adding visuals. And yes, the timing is such that we need to get the agenda and report out, and then we David Price- kind of move on to doing the the the slide deck, but we hear you.

Okay, thank you, I know it's a process.

David Price- And to the degree that we can include context photos or other visuals and. I don't know if we include, I don't think we do include the KML or KMZ file, which essentially just brings you to the parcel in Google Earth, which is very helpful internally to us to just be able to click that and get there and be able to see the context. We have Google Earth available during the presentations if you would want to see that for context.

Okay. And I would even at the lowest level, one example by this last one was the addresses of 9 Vista Court and 3 Vista Court and Carly Lane. Okay. We're on that exhibit. And then I went back because I'm like, oh, that's where it is. And I looked at the exhibit. No addresses. One of them had one address on it. But I think that was something that she probably saw that it would be more informative to add on there. And it is. I'd love to just that's the one I'd really ask for is I get I get lost sometimes, especially on these lots that don't have addresses or don't have, you know, they're they're newer. It's just hard sometimes. I'm slow. I'm visual. Need the help.

Perfect um since that's the planning instructor report planning directors report anything additional. Okay 927 Thank you meetings adjourned.

Thank you.